


With None But Thee

by The Librarina (tears_of_nienna)



Category: Coriolanus - Shakespeare
Genre: Blank Verse, M/M, Screenplay/Script Format, Spanking, blacksmithing metaphors, unnecessarily erotic stage directions
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-02-10
Updated: 2014-02-10
Packaged: 2018-01-11 19:53:20
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,184
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1177242
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tears_of_nienna/pseuds/The%20Librarina
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some time after the battle for Corioles, Martius visits the newly conquered city.</p>
            </blockquote>





	With None But Thee

[Takes place some time after Act I, scene viii. Martius pays a visit to the newly conquered town of Corioles.]

 

_A room in Corioles. Aufidius sits at the edge of a bed, bare to the waist. A knock, and Martius enters from a side door._

**Martius:** Are we at peace?

**Aufidius:** Do I draw breath? Then no.  
Go take thy gloating elsewhere--let me be.

**Martius:** I have not come to gloat upon the spoils;  
A different errand brought me to the town.

**Aufidius:** If you were but one-tenth as good at lies  
As with a sword, no man would doubt your word.  
You came for me.

**Martius:** Perhaps, but not to fight.

**Aufidius:** I cannot think what else you mean to do.

**Martius:** We are not fit to fight each other now.  
Our wounds are still too fresh. My motive was  
To see that you are well, and nothing more.

**Aufidius:** [ _rubbing his throat_ ] Aye, well enough, though I've seen better days.  
Your arm?

**Martius:** Dressed well, and not by half so bad  
As first it seemed to be on my return.

**Aufidius:** [ _bitterly_ ] The blood not thine, but of my countrymen.

**Martius:** All those that met their end upon my blade  
Did fight full well and valiant, pressed me hard--  
And made themselves a truly noble end.

**Aufidius:** That eulogy will chilly comfort be  
To mothers and to wives they leave behind.  
But worst of all, I think upon their sons,  
Half-orphaned ere they scarcely drew a breath.

**Martius:** These would have made an orphan of _my_ son  
Had one good blow struck home.

**Aufidius:** And what of that?  
You spend more time in campments than in Rome.  
What age has he? How many of those years  
Were spent at war? How many in your home?  
Your son knows you in stories, not in flesh.  
What's there to mourn, when he would be hard-pressed  
To pick his father's visage from a crowd?

_Martius rushes him. They grapple; Aufidius pins Martius and straddles him._

**Aufidius:** [ _laughing_ ] Thou liest upon thy back, and yet thou stand'st  
Upright as any soldier on his watch.  
Who'd think the man, who all of Coriol  
And her surrounding fields did overstride,  
Did so much long to be himself o'erstrode?

**Martius:** Pray let me rise.

**Aufidius:** No further than your knees.

_Aufidius stands and Martius kneels before him. Aufidius circles him slowly._

**Aufidius:** One day I'll best thee not in privacy,  
But on the field, for all the world to see  
That Rome's great hero kneels before my blade.

**Martius:** If that be all you seek, I'll do it now  
And kiss that steel which stands before me proud.

_Martius opens Aufidius' trousers and kisses his cock._

**Aufidius:** Thy lips are warm--!

**Martius:** Thy blade is hotter still.  
Good blacksmiths know that when the steel glows red  
It must be quench'd, to give it better strength.

_Martius takes Aufidius' cock in his mouth._

**Aufidius:** Thou know'st thy trade.  
But softly now! Thinkst thou to temper me?

_He pushes Martius back. Martius looks up at him, his mouth wet and red._

**Martius:** I am yours--what will you have of me?

**Aufidius:** [ _considering_ ] Methinks I like thee best upon thy knees.

_Martius rises and kneels on the bed. Aufidius kneels behind him and strips off Martius' trousers._

**Aufidius:** Thou'rt vanquished, my dear Roman, wilt thou yield?

**Martius:** As eas'ly as your city did for me.

_Aufidius strikes Martius' ass with the flat of his hand._

**Aufidius:** You'll keep a civil tongue.

**Martius:** A civil tongue?  
You like me most uncivil, I have found.

_Aufidius slaps him harder; Martius moans._

**Aufidius:** Then hold your tongue, keep still and let me take  
What you have offered, not unwillingly.

_Aufidius sheathes himself and begins to thrust, but gently._

**Martius:** Are all your horses ridden with such care?

**Aufidius:** Your wounds--

**Martius:** Are scratches only, heed them not.  
If battle did not break me, nor will you.

_Aufidius begins to move forcefully. He catches hold of Martius' hair and pulls him back, baring his throat._

**Aufidius:** I would that I could see thee thus bestrode  
Each night, upon your knees or on your back,  
And wake to see the marks I made on you.  
A pity that it cannot be--oh gods!  
My end is near, I cannot hold, and yet  
If I must fall, I would not fall alone.

_Aufidius strokes Martius' cock; they come together and collapse onto the bed._

**Martius:** [ _after a moment_ ] There's none who knows me quite the way you do,  
Nor puts that knowledge to such keen a test.  
At times I wonder what the gods could mean,  
To set us both on earth, and yet at odds  
For all our days. It seems to me a waste.

**Aufidius:** And if we were allied, what stone had we  
To rasp, and stroke, and hone ourselves against?  
No, noble Caius, we were made for war.

**Martius:** [ _laughing_ ] Speak not of stroking now, I am done in.

**Aufidius:** Ask no more why the gods made us oppos'd--  
It could be only thus. The world would shake  
If we were ranged in any other wise.  
If we did stand together on a side  
Of some great war, our valor'd acts would make  
The gods themselves turn jade with envying.  
The pair we made would shame the band of Thebes.

**Martius:** You've thought on this.

**Aufidius:** In idle times, perhaps,  
But thought will never spur itself to deed.  
You would no more abandon Rome for me,  
Than I would leave my Volsces for your sake.

**Martius:** You have it right. Our honor sets our course  
And binds us both with duty's iron chains. 

**Aufidius:** When next we meet in battle on the field...

**Martius:** I'll not show mercy for what happened here,  
But nor, I think, will you.

**Aufidius:** You know me well.  
Our mercies mark us great in times of peace,  
Yet have no place in war. If I must die,  
I could but wish none other for the deed.

**Martius:** In only that, I think, we are agreed.  
For any other man upon the earth,  
I would not deign to fall.

**Aufidius:** Leave off this talk,  
Too grave it is by half. Let's speak no more,  
Be deaf and dumb and blind until dawn breaks  
To put our rest to end.

**Martius:** [ _rising from the bed_ ] I cannot sleep.

**Aufidius:** You can, you must, you shall.

**Martius:** Oh, no more 'shall'!  
Think you, for what was done tonight, you may  
Command me now? Go you and hang your 'shall.'

**Aufidius:** Even bold Achilles took his ease  
From time to time, beside his Patroclus.  
And you are mortal-born, despite your gift  
To wield your sword in fury like a god.

**Martius:** Have done, I will not hear your flattery.

**Aufidius:** I do not flatter--flattery is lies  
Worth no more than the breath they're spoken on.  
Though I may fight a hundred wars arrayed  
Against thee, no--I will not lie to thee.  
[ _reaching out_ ] Though you be proud, submit to my request:  
Come thou to bed, my nemesis, and rest.

**Author's Note:**

> Oh, wow, I have a lot of notes. Do not feel obligated to read these unless you're interested in my super-nerdy Shakespeare ramblings.
> 
>   * Title taken from the first line of I.viii-- _I'll fight with none but thee_.
>   * In the text, Aufidius and Martius go back and forth between _thou_ and _you_ multiple times, even in a single scene. The early-modern _you_ was more formal than _thou_ , something like _vous/tu_ in French, so you could insult someone with a well-placed _thou_. However, I can't find any pattern of thou/you in Martius' and Aufidius' canon interactions, so there's no pattern to it here, either.
>   * Why bottom!Martius? His life is composed of so much stress and responsibility that, when it comes to sex, I think he might just want to set that burden down. But he can't, because Rome and performative masculinity and stuff, so the burden has to be _taken_ him from him, hence the wrestling at the start of the scene. Which, let's be real, he totally lost on purpose.
>   * Both of them would be using the _praenomen_ here, because if you're engaging in kinky dominance wrestling, you've probably moved a little past the realm of formalities.
>   * "Thy lips are warm!" --spoken by Romeo in a much less sexy scene.
>   * There are like six blacksmithing/dick jokes here and I make no apologies.
>   * Yes, I compared Martius' asshole to the gates of Corioles. _What are you going to do about it?_
>   * Also people talk about horses a lot in this play, so I figured I'd continue the metaphor here because "fuck me harder" doesn't quite fill the meter.
>   * Namechecking the Theban Band here just because I really like the idea of AU Theban Band Martius/Aufidius.
>   * "To any other man upon this earth / I would not deign to fall." Because AWFUL FORESHADOWING OF DOOM, and also orgasms.
>   * Also I swear to god I didn't realize the "grave" pun in the next line until I reread it.
>   * In Act III, scene i, Martius pitches a huge fit about one of the tribunes saying Martius 'shall' do something, because the word has an element of command to it. I figured he gets kind of prickly about that thing no matter who's saying it.
>   * Overall, I found myself breaking rhyming couplets and individual lines of blank verse between the two of them a lot. I like the idea of them, if not finishing each other's sentences, at least filling in the other's meter.
> 

> 
> For more rambling about Shakespeare, dead revolutionary boys, and Hadley Fraser's stupid gorgeous face, come say hi at [my tumblr.](thelibrarina.tumblr.com)


End file.
